* Gathered laptop case, handouts and flash drives and off to the OASIS class in Mission Valley. Got there by 9:45, but computer lab door was locked, they had to call security to get a key. Started class at 10:15 in the open space outside the OASIS rooms, then key came at 10:40 and I finished the presentation there. Had good questions and some hands-on searching today.

* Had no clue what to post, so used An interesting record - has anyone used it? Answered some emails, used some email info to add data to the database, and did some online searching for records for several ancestral families.

* Linda home at 4 p.m., we had dinner at 6 p.m., and read the paper and watched TV until 7.

* Back at 7 p.m. to edit my master sources - I'm through the Ks now. Getting there! Wrote Genealogy Days in Chula Vista - March 2011 and two more blog posts for later this week. Added to the Best Of post, checked out the FGS strategy papers, sent email to society Board about them, and wrote this post.

* Home just before noon, and I jumped into the Scanfest. Chatted a bit, but figured I'd better get my scanning done. The all-in-one Lexmark is new, and I forget how to do some things, like scanning, so I got one item scanned and it wouldn't do any more. I fussed and fumed (Scanfest log has nasty details) and finally gave up after an hour of trying, and left Scanfest pretty frustrated. Unplugged it, plugged it back in, still wouldn't work as either a scanner, printer or copier. Humppff. What now? Ah, reboot the computer! It's been on for several days without a restart, so did that and the Lexmark came back to life.

* Scanned my 20 pages, and then some photos that were in the "to-be-scanned" pile, and named everything and saved them. Printed out a bunch of wallet-sized photos of the grandkids for our wallets (the last ones we had were like 2007) and larger photos for Linda's carrying bag and to frame for the walls. Cool.

* Worked in RootsMagic 4 - got through the H's and the I's in the source editing.

* We left at 5:15 p.m. for dinner out at Lolita's - pretty good tonight. I just have two shredded beef tacos with lettuce and cheese. It's enough. Back home at 6 p.m., I read the paper and watched TV news for an hour.

* Reviewed the OASIS class presentation and handout one more time, then copied everything to two flash drives and put them and the handouts in the laptop case.

* Wrote two blog posts for Monday, read everything, and started the Best Of post for next week. Checked Facebook and Twitter, and wrote this post.

* Went to Ed's memorial service at church. He was one of my clients back in 2008. His brother from SC was there, and a granddaughter from the L.A. area was there. At the reception, we talked a bit about the ancestry papers I had given Ed - they looked at them the night before. I got their email addresses to send them information. They did not know about the second family of Ed's father.

* Home by 12 noon and watched SDSU get beat by BYU again. Drat.

* Back online at 1:15 p.m., read everything, checked Facebook, but soon interrupted by Linda breaking a bottle of olive oil in the kitchen. What a mess - glass and oil everywhere - counter, sink, floor, stove. Took awhile to clean it all up.

* Worked in the database for awhile - got through the F's and G's and into the H's on source editing. Found more source errors and fixed them. Worked a bit to burn down my "to be entered" file - got the Killingly CT BMDs into the database and sourced, and checked to see that data for several CT/RI families were entered and sourced. Answered some emails.

* Linda called dinner at 5:45 p.m., so we ate, then watched TV and read the paper until 6:45.

* Back online to read, then started working through Piscataway BMDs that I photoed at the FHL last April. They turned out fairly well - readable when magnified, and entered the Marriages from the old record book. Added to the Best Of post.

* Decided to look at the Turner problem in Ed's tree again, since that was a sticking point before. Found a family in the right place and right time (only Turner family in Chattooga County GA) and found an online tree in WorldConnect, but it didn't list the specific Turner girl (born after 1880 census, married before 1900 census). I'm pretty sure that's where she belongs, so added it to the tree. Will add weasel words to the database.

Friday, February 25, 2011

A fairly full and varied genealogy day, but aren't they all! Then WDYTYA? tonight.

* Read email and blogs, then wrote Keeping Genealogists Informed. Worked on updating the OASIS Class 4 presentation and handout. Damn OpenOffice really mangles some MSWord documents. Lost many of my bullets, tabs and had to work at making it look good. At least now I have a full set of OO versions to work with, but don't have good bullets and tabs. I'd hate to rewrite it. Printed off a black/white copy.

* Answered some emails, then printed off my FGS FORUM articles for show and tell next week. Ate lunch, and off to walk on the bayfront.

* Had a nice walk with George, then to the library to look for a reading book, and then to UPS Store to print off my Class 3 and 4 handouts.

* Did some online research, answered more email. I have the list burned down to 5! Found I had an earlier version of my RootsMagic database. Hate when that happens. Didn't do any changing in the wrong version, thank goodness. Only noticed it when I checked the Source list - was using the 2/23 version instead of the 2/24 version. Note to self: Delete the earlier versions!

* Went in at 5:30 to watch TV, eat dinner and read the paper. Back online at 6:30 to read everything, check Facebook but not Twitter (to avoid WDYTYA spoilers), then worked on source citation edits for awhile. Got the E's done and most of the F's.

* Watched WDYTYA? - the Kim Cattrall episode was basically the English show with American voiceovers. Caught on in the first 15 minutes. Wrote WDYTYA - Kim Cattrall - Deja Vu! immediately afterwards. A decent show, I grade it a B+. I'm still waiting to be really genea-smacked, I guess.

* Read Twitter and Facebook, and Banai commented on my post, then added to the Best Of post and wrote this post.

* We left at 2:15 p.m. to deliver food to a church family, then on to the financial adviser to sign papers, home for awhile (I read blog posts) and left before 5 p.m. to take food to a friend and share dinner and conversation with her. Even got a look at a church record book.

* Home by 8 p.m. to read the paper while Linda did email, then read email and blogs, added to the Best Of post, checked in on Facebook and Twitter, and wrote this post.

* Created and printed some Genealogy 101 flyers, gathered my stuff, ate lunch, and left at 11:30 a.m. for the library for the CVGS meeting.

* Margaret Lewis spoke on military records at CVGS, and it was pretty good. Stopped at the pharmacy afterwards.

* Home by 2:30 p.m. to read everything, thought of nothing to write about, so played with Google Images and Maps for awhile. Checked Facebook and Twitter too, and answered some emails.

* Went in at 5 p.m. to eat dinner, read the paper, watch TV, put out the trash.

* Back on the computer at 6 p.m. to read, then wrote Steadily Improving my Family Tree Database. Worked on Source editing for awhile, finding where I actually found specific sources, looking on Ancestry, FamilySearch, Google and WorldCat.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

I spent George's birthday at home working on my database almost all day!

* Read email and blogs, then posted Tuesday's Tip - Use the WorldCat Catalog to find genealogy books. Tried to think of something else to blog about, but worked in my database instead. Added more source citations for several families and moved paper from the "to-do" pile to the "to-be-filed" pile - it's pretty big now! Then checked my White, Oatley and Wade probate records and hope to order one at the FHL next time I'm there. Where did the time go?

* Got started on the CDNC newspaper site and couldn't stop... tried to add data to the database as I went along. Where did the time go? It flies when I'm having fun!

* Went in at 5:30 to watch TV, read the paper and have dinner. Back online at 7 p.m. to work on master sources - and added some data I found to the database. Then added to the Best Of post, checked Facebook, Twitter and Google maps for Christchurch, then wrote this post.

* Downloaded the Barry Ewell material and browsed through it. Very well done.

* Finished off the master Source editing task - now need to go back and find the information I'm missing for some of them - the database name, the periodical volume/pages, the FHL film numbers, etc. In the process, I'm finding the ones I didn't edit well the first time around.

* Worked my way through about one inch of paper in my "to be entered into the database" stack. Did some entering of data but not a lot. Answered several emails too.

* Went in at 5:30 p.m. to watch TV, read the paper and eat dinner.

* Back online at 7 p.m. to read everything, work more on sources (I'm in the middle of the Cs the second time around here), then add to the Best Of post, write a Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe blog post and then this post.

* Off to La Jolla at 8:15 a.m. for the CGSSD meeting at UCSD. Attended the RootsMagic class chaired by Chris C. He reviewed and demonstrated Dropbox and how to work with RootsMagic files with it. For the main event, Tom Underhill did his presentation on Photo's and Scanning. Even got some chocolate. Had some compliments on my SDGS talk last week.

* Worked in the database fixing sources - got through half of the W's, then added families from the Rolfe and Hale works I found at the FHL in October.

* Dinner called at 5 p.m., so we ate and watched TV and read the newspaper.

* Online at 7 p.m. to read, then work more in the database on Rolfe and Dunham sources. Found the John Dunham article in TGMB and printed it out. Added more items to my book list.

* Added content to my Best Of post, rearranged my RootsMagic file folders, and then captured some Seaver biographies from Who's Who in America (online at AmericanAncestors) - added to the database. Wrote this post.

* Answered some email, worked through the rest of the VR sources, had lunch and figured I'd better get to the bank and the library before the rain hit. Spent about 30 minutes at the library looking for "great" genealogy books on the shelf - found some I'd never seen before! Came out and it was raining so I scurried home.

* Worked on source citations in my database for awhile, got through the VR-Rs. Added several families to the database from the Threlfall book pages I obtained at the FHC three weeks ago. Added source citations to every fact too. I'm getting the hang of it, I guess. Checked Facebook and Twitter.

* Went in at 5 p.m. to watch TV. Ron came for dinner so we talked until 7. Watched TV and read the paper until 8 while Linda did her email.

* Read everything, answered more email, worked on sources - got though the VR-Ss. Talked to Lori. Added to the Best Of post. Wrote this post. done!

* Called for dinner, then we took food to church people, and home by 6 p.m. I watched the news and read the paper for awhile.

* Back online at 6:30 to do more source fixes, then watched Jeopardy, answered some email and added to the Best Of post. Watched a Lisa Cooke video. Missed the FTM webinar. Checked Facebook and Twitter. Wrote this post.

* Packed up my stuff, and off to the OASIS class at 9:10. got there at 9:30, was set up and ready for my students at 10. The class ran overtime a bit due to instructor enthusiasm. They didn't mind!

* Home at 1 p.m., had lunch, worked on geocoding my RootsMagic database and resolving place name errors (yeah, I still have some after the big project in December). Have 600 out of 4000 not geocoded now due to errors or unlisted places (many in Norway).

* Wrote FamilyTech site at FamilySearch.org and then we went to dinner at the Butcher Shop for Valentine's Day. Even had an adult beverage...and a nice filet. We were home by 5:30 and exchanged gifts. I got See's candy and walking shoes, she got flowers and oldies CDs for the car. Watched TV and read the paper.

* Worked down my email list a bit - got about 10 emails out before stopping and adding to the Best Of list, then checked Facebook and Twitter, and wrote this post.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Not much of a genealogy day here in sunny Chula Vista - got sidetracked on real life a bit.

* Read my email and blogs, and did a final edit on the Best Of post and set it for noon time. Got cleaned up and off to church at 9:30 a.m.

* Home from church by 11:45 a.m., and read everything before going in to eat lunch, read the paper, and watch TV. I got a short nap in too. Noted that Best of the Genea-Blogs - 6 - 12 February 2011 posted. Worked on the sources for awhile, got through the "The..." ones. Counted up the "Vital records..." ones - about 100 to do. Soon.

* Decided to go out to buy a V-day card and flowers so I don't have to do it on Monday. Snuck out and was back in 45 minutes and she didn't know I was gone. Surprised. Cool.

* Mowed the front lawn finally (last mowed the week before Christmas). Came in and read everything, checked Facebook, and started writing Three (or more!) Genealogy Worlds?

* We had dinner, I filled the bird feeder and took out the trash, and back online at 6 p.m. to read everything, and finish up the Three Worlds post.

* Copied the OASIS material to the two flash drives and loaded the laptop case. Added RootsMagic-To-Go to my flash drive too so I can demonstrate it in the class.

* Started next week's Best Of post, watched the DearMYRTLE videos from RootsTech, wrote a V-day post for tomorrow, and wrote this post.

* Double checked everything and left at 9 a.m. for the SDGS meeting. Arrived at 9:30, was set up with microphone and projector by 9:40, tested the remote and it worked fine. Put it in my pocket. Meeting started at 10 a.m. and I was up at about 10:15. Turned on the remote and it didn't work. It's intentionally simple, and I knew how to work it. So Plan B was to sit in front of my laptop next to the projector and press the buttons on the laptop. Drat. Other than that, the two presentations went well - big crowd, about 150 or so. Lots of nice comments afterwards.

* Was home by 1 p.m. to watch the RootsTech panel on Virtual Presentations. Also tried to watch the Navy airshow on KOGO.com but it kept stopping intermittently and I couldn't see much anyway. Stupid camera placement. Noted that Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Three Questions posted.

* Bored, so went in at 2 p.m. to watch TV, read the paper and take a nap. Linda came home after 3 from the Padres Fanfest where she watched the airshow, but was pretty far away from the flight paths.

* Came in at 3:15 and finished the S's and started on the T's in the RootsMagic sources. I can see the tunnel, but no light since the V's are coming soon - I probably have over 100 books starting "Vital records of..." to "fix."

* We left at 5 p.m. for dinner, ended up at Subway. came home to watch first half of Aztecs basketball game, then worked online for awhile, and watched the end of the game.

* Checked Facebook and Twitter, worked on my OASIS presentation for Monday, and checked out the presentation remote. It didn't work again, so went to website and tried to ask a question. Never did succeed. Changed battery out and tried it again and it worked. Dammit. Have no clue why it didn't work - maybe battery end was dirty? Hope I don't need new batteries after about 10 minutes of testing.

* Uploaded Linda's pictures to the computer, wrote this post and I'm done.

Friday, February 11, 2011

I really didn't get much done today, except for blogging and getting ready for the SDGS talk on Saturday. I spent all day wishing I was at RootsTech.

* Jumped on the RootsTech site to watch Curt Witcher's presentation, and I'm glad I did. I tweeted some too. Excellent. Read my email and blogs during the next presentation about Cloud Computing - not genealogy, so stopped it eventually.

* Back online at 3 p.m. to watch Josh Taylor's PDF presentation by replaying it and advancing it. Not bad, but not genealogy either. Checked Twitter feeds.

* Set up the laptop, made one final pass through the presentation, saved it, copied it to two flash drives and then to the laptop. Checked the presentation thing to make sure it works, and packed up the laptop.

* Went in at 5 p.m. to watch TV, read the paper, finally got my nap, and eat dinner.

* Back online at 6:15 p.m. to write the Surname Saturday post, then checked Twitter feed for RootsTech and checked Facebook.

* Watched WDYTYA? at 8 p.m., gave it only a C+. They made it look too easy, and there was no great emotional find this week. Liked Tim.

* Back online at 9 p.m. to write the SNGF post for Saturday, add to the Best Of post, check Facebook again and write this post.

* Realized I missed the first streaming video presentation at RootsTech and wanted to catch the 2 p.m. one. Tami and Lolo came at noontime. Heard about and wrote about 50 Most Popular Genealogy Websites for 2011. Worked in RootsMagic on sources - got the R's done and started the S list.

* At library, asked Gary if he had brought the projector - um, no. Ooops. Guess I won't be showing my work on the wall. Got the laptop set up and put the flash drive in and my presentation was not there. Oops #2, and the bigger one! Drat. Must have messed up the file copy. That's two in one week. Blundered through it adlibbing the material I had - hopefully they took something from it. Had a good question and answer time too.

* Home by 2:15 p.m. to read everything, and worked on my source citations - got O and P done editing the mangled stuff. Still have to create many that are still in shorthand.

* Sleepy so went in at 4:30 p.m. to read paper and watch TV, but Linda wanted to go to Oggi's for salad and pizza so we did. Home by 6:30 p.m. and she had an allergic reaction to something.

* Online at 7 p.m. to read everything and work on the 12 February presentation a bit. More edits and practice for the first part of it. Answered some emails, then added to the Best Of post, checked Facebook, checked Twitter for RootsTech posts, and wrote this post.

* Got there without much traffic at 8:45, was done by 8:55, and walked the mile over to the shopping center lugging my laptop. Sat on the bench reviewing my handout for about 20 minutes and ate my apple, then went in to set up the computer for the class. I did not have the class presentation material on my two flash drives! I copied the wrong file folder to the flash drives on Friday night. Ah, but I copied things to the laptop last Monday, so found the presentation, quickly edited it, saved it to the flash drive, into the class computer, and was ready when students came to 10 a.m. Whew!

* Class went well, was out by 12:20 p.m. and walked the mile back to the car dealer lugging my laptop. Got checked out, and was home by 1:15 p.m. Ate lunch, noted that "The Schoolmaster's in that Bed" posted and gathered up the CVGS Newsletter material and went to the UPS store at 2 p.m. to publish the newsletter.

* Decided to find the census records for the Chula Vista historical houses on the April tour, found the first one easily, right next door to the John Morrill house (Morrill married Matie Smith in 1920, my grandfather's aunt). Found more information on Morrills and then Pinkhams and added them to the database. Really got sidetracked there - oh well, I can do more searching tomorrow.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

It wasn't much of a genealogy day, what with church, no Scanfest, and the Super Bowl.

* Read email and lbogs, and finished the Best Of post and set it for noontime. Got cleaned up and went off to church.

* Home at 11:40 a.m., grabbed lunch, gathered OASIS class material and CVGS Newsletter stuff, and out the door at 12 noon for the UPS Store to make copies. Not! They've decided to not open on Sundays, effective 6 February. Drat. Back home...

* Noted that Best of the Genea-Blogs - 30 January to 5 February 2011 posted, and then made the 10 copies of the OASIS class handout on my printer, since I have no time on Monday morning to do it. Consoled myself by working in the database converting mangled sources to decent sources - got the Es and Fs done! The V's will be hard!

* Went in at 2:45 to watch the pre-game show, read the paper, and took a nap - woke up just as they were kicking off. It was a good game, and Green Bay deserved to win. We enjoyed the halftime show and some of the commercials.

* Back online at 7:30 to edit my presentation, get it all on the flash drives, and the laptop bag packed to go on Monday. Read everything, wrote A Seaver Driven from North Carolina in 1860 but hit Post before I could schedule it for Monday morning. Drat! Wrote tow more posts for Monday.

* Had lunch, and went off to the CVGS workshop at Bonita Library. Took the laptop and tried to download the updated Legacy software, but the session stopped prematurely. Now LFT7 is hosed.

* Home by 2 p.m., to read everything, download Legacy 7 to the laptop - it worked. Also updated RootsMagic 4 too. Worked in RM4 on the desktop editing my master sources (correcting the FTM2011 errors introduced in the GEDCOM file creation).

* Went in at 5 p.m. to watch TV, read the paper, eat dinner and wash the dishes.

* Online at 7 p.m. to finish up the CVGS Newsletter, and tried to print it off. The f%^&*&^%g printer wouldn't work. After an hour of frustration where RTFM didn't work, the printer support menu was useless, I fired up the old computer and printer. Also turned off the desktop and turned it back on, and that did the trick! Printed off the newsletter and mailing list.

* Added to the Best Of post, and was ready to write this post when I remembered that I had to copy my handout for the OASIS class on Monday. Yikes. Had to edit the two handouts - the MSWord format gets all screwed up in OpenOffice. Finally printed out black and white copies to print on Sunday.

* Answered some email, had lunch, and went off at 11:30 a.m. to pick up George and walk on the bayfront in shirtsleeve weather (65F). Went to the library afterward to work on a query and do more on my research project.

* Worked in software a bit, then answered some emails, and went in at 5 p.m. to watch TV, read the paper and eat dinner.

* Back online at 6:30 p.m. to edit my SDGS handout and send it off, added content to the CVGS Newsletter, check Facebook, and answer some emails before WDYTYA? came on.

* Went in at 7:50 to watch WDYTYA? Linda was excited earlier that it was going to be on, but when I checked her she was asleep already. Oh well. I graded it a B+ and noted five mentions of Ancestry.com - four of them in ads.

* Back online at 9:15 p.m., to read everything, write the Surname Saturday post, add to the Best Of post and to write this post.

* Read everything, checked Ancestry's new databases, answered more email and it was 5 p.m. before I knew it!

* Went in at 5 p.m. to watch TV, read the paper, and eat dinner. Back online at 6:30 p.m to straighten up a tall stack of paper, Dumped about 3 inches, moved some to other neat piles, and that stack looks better.

* Worked on the CVGS Newsletter - received no articles from Board members yet, but have it 80% done. Will publish on Sunday.

* Added to the Best Of post, checked Facebook and wrote this post (#7 on the day!).

* Dinner was ready at 5:30 p.m., and took the trash out for pickup on Thursday.

* Back online at 6:30 p.m. to read, then work on finding more data and writing an email to summarize the research project. Added to the Best Of post, started the February CVGS Newsletter, checked in on Facebook and wrote this post.

* Added some source data to the database from the FHC trip on Saturday. Stumbled around in RootsMagic for hours trying to figure out source merging, and finally did it but had a major problem. I wrote about it in Source Citation Merging in RootsMagic 4 - Uh Oh!

* Decided to work in the Free-form citations in RM4 cleaning them up (from the FTM 2011 GEDCOM problems) to be near EE standard. Got about 20 done, 640 more to go!

* Linda asked at 4:45 p.m. if I'd done the back yard jungle - so I went out and pushed the mower around for 45 minutes. Back in to have dinner, watch TV and read the paper.

* Back online at 7 p.m. to read, then did some online research for the CV100 project. Found quite a bit about Andy and Ephie! Finalized the presentation and handout for SDGS meeting on 12 February. Added to the Best Of post. Checked Facebook. Wrote this post.

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About Me

I am a native San Diegan, a graduate of San Diego State University, a retired aerospace engineer, a genealogist and a family guy.
My wife (Angel Linda) and I have two lovely daughters, and four darling grandchildren. We love to visit them and have them visit us.
Angel Linda and I love to travel to visit friends and relatives, to sightsee, to cruise or to do genealogy. Our travels have taken us all over the USA, to England, Down Under and Scandinavia.
For earlier posts (not visible on the main post list), please see the Archives listed below by month.
If you like my blog, please put it in your Favorites or Bookmarks and visit regularly.
Contact me via email at randy.seaver@gmail.com